I don't come across British crime novels very often, so it was a nice change to read Rough Justice. I'm not native English, but I love the British accent and phrases. They speak different English than the rest of the world, in a good sense. I enjoyed the police slang in this story.
I think Rough Justice showed the two sides of the coin in several ways.
Usually we don't get much information about the private life of detectives in a thriller, only as much as we need for the story to advance. In this book this hole is filled with plenty of details, and I learned how the crime cases affect the life of detectives: why Fox is afraid of getting into a relationship, how Marenko feels about his ex-wife and son-in-law being on the other side of the machine of justice. These give a deep characterisation and they're compelling details if you're interested in such pieces of the whole picture. However, it can be a weakness of the story, if you're more into fast paced action books.
The ending wasn't big surprise, but it reminded me of life itself. As readers we love to be surprised and we're excited about twists and unexpected turns, but in real life they don't happen that many times. I wouldn't say that the real life is boring, because it can produce amazing things, but very often the outcome is just the result of hard work, and can be foreseen well in advance. Anyway, in the book it was played out well. ( )

This was something completely different from what I usually read (fantasy and historical fiction). We are in modern day London where Madeline Fox and Frank Marenko is called out to a grisly murder scene. We don't get too much crime solving in the first half of the book, but we get to spend some time to get to know the characters. The ending was a bit abrupt and lacking. I did enjoy the read though but not sure if I would continue reading the series.

A little warning. The book contains some strong language, and gore. ( )

An okay read. Good storyline. However, the grammar and writing style could have been better. This book was written/set in 1999, but there were some things not relevant to this era. Such as, a remark about smoking in pubs being illegal, which was not the case in 1999. In addition the police chiefs ex wife must have been a multi billionaire to be able to obtain an iphone years before it was released. The story didn't leave an imprint in my mind and many times I had to go back to check details which I couldn't remember. This is not like the crime books I am used to reading. There was too much personal detail about characters that did not have any relevance to the crimes. There were too many loose ends with sub plots that went knowhere. Just as something interesting came to light it died without any further development. There are so many plots and sub plots which twist and turn and eventually come to nothing. In addition they are unrelated and give the impression that some of the characters may have comitted the murders; however, it seems unclear whether these subplots have any relevance to the actual story. In the end, the solution to the murders seems almost random. It would have been better if the story had been a little more cohesive and the suspects and characters more relevant. I may read a latest novel by this author as some authors writing improve over the years, I wouldn't read any of his early work again. ( )

I found this mystery a bit slow and wandering, but the story line was solid and the author brought all the seemingly unconnected plot lines together in the end. As an American reader, I stumbled over the British slang. This is the first book in a planned series, which could account for its lack of momentum. I'd like to follow the series to see if the weaknesses in this book are the result of the author's setting up the characters and environment for later volumes. ( )

This crime novel is the first in a series with detective Madeleine Fox. I like a good thriller, and, as I enjoy reading novels set in London as this this series is, I was pleased to receive it as part of the Library Thing Early Reviewers program.

I have mixed feelings about the book. While I was interested enough in the story to read through it fairly quickly, I found that, when I picked up the book for the first time the following day, I had to reread a few pages from the day before so that I could place myself back into the plot. That is unusual for me. Clearly the details of the story weren't remarkable enough and didn't leave a big impression. The plot itself was predictable, and a few of the characters were cliched. It was a fun and interesting crime novel, but nothing about it necessarily sets it apart from so many others in the genre.

Without analysing it unnecessarily, however, I enjoyed it and might read the subsequent books in the Madeleine Fox series.

I received this book as a Library Thing Early Reviewer, but that did not influence my review. ( )